Pulitzer Prize History Winner
Banks and Politics in America
by Bray Hammond
Summary
Hammond traces the long political battle over banking in the United States from the Revolution through the Civil War, centering on fights over the national banks and Andrew Jackson's war against the Second Bank. He argues that these struggles were as much about democracy, power, and money as about finance itself. The work brought a practicing banker's understanding to a subject historians had often handled superficially.
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Historical Context & Significance
Bray Hammond, a former assistant secretary of the Federal Reserve Board, won the Pulitzer Prize for History for this book in 1958.